LAST UPDATE | 27 Sep 2018

THE WOMAN WHO has accused US President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick of sexual assault at a high school party is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon. 

In her opening statement to the committee, a clearly emotional Christine Blasey Ford said that she did not want to be testifying but that it is her ‘civic duty’ to do so.

Kavanaugh, whose nomination is in serious jeopardy after bombshell new accusations by another woman emerged yesterday charging that the judge engaged in sexually abusive behaviour when he was a teenager, has vehemently denied the allegations.

He is due to testify after Blasey Ford.

In her testimony, Blasey Ford said that her goal in speaking out is to ‘be helpful’.

CNN CNN

Asked whether or not her accusations regarding Kavanaugh could be a case of mistaken identity she replied “absolutely not”.

She claimed she has experienced “anxiety, phobia and PTSD symptoms”, along with claustrophobia, since the attack happened. She said she had struggled academically in the aftermath of the assault.

She said the most significant memory of the alleged assault was the alleged “laughter” of Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge.

“They were laughing at me and having fun at my expense. They were two friends having a good time together,” she said, adding that she was ‘underneath’ one of her attackers at the time of the assault.

Asked with ‘what degree of certainty’ she could say that Brett Kavanaugh had assaulted her, she replied “100%”.

Ford alleges that Kavanaugh drunkenly assaulted her at a party when he was 17, she was 15 and they were attending private schools outside Washington in the 1980s.

Kavanaugh denies knowledge of any such assault and wants to give his side of the story to the committee.

Blasey Ford’s accusations have thrust her into an intense national spotlight, as Trump seeks to push through his nominee on party lines and Democrats demand a suspension of the proceedings to allow the FBI to conduct a thorough investigation.

This afternoon’s hearing is considered deeply controversial, with Republicans taking the extraordinary step of hiring a female attorney to question Blasey Ford on behalf of the committee’s 11 Republican senators, all men.

Kavanaugh is due to testify after Blasey Ford. Democrats plan to ask their own questions of the witnesses.

With © – AFP, 2018